Global Tablet Shipments Topped 40 Million Last Quarter

Source: https://intelligence.businessinsider.com/welcome

Tablets had a strong first quarter, shipping 40.6 million units, according to Strategy Analytics.

That's a 23% drop compared to the prior quarter, but it's an 143% increase over the same quarter in 2012. 

The sequential drop shouldn't come as a surprise because the holiday quarter is historically the tablet market's strongest, so sales naturally dip in the first quarter. 

The important thing, however, is that the dip is becoming less pronounced. Last year the decline between the fourth quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012 was 41%. This year, it was nearly half that.

Furthermore, there is reason to believe that there is a substantial grey market for tablets in China that is flying under the radar of data research firms. 

In terms of tablet platforms, Apple's iOS once again leads the tablet market, accounting for a 48% share of tablet shipments in the first quarter. That's a slight improvement over the fourth quarter, when it stumbled to a 44% share.

Google's Android was second, with a 43% share, according to Strategy Analytics.

Note, however, that Strategy Analytics places tablets like the Kindle Fire into the Android category, even though it doesn't really make sense to categorize them as such. Kindle tablets run on software that is a "fork" of the Android operating system, and they don't come pre-installed with Google's services and software.

Microsoft shipped 3 million tablets, up from 1 million a quarter prior, for a 7 percent share. Microsoft tablets may be showing signs of life, but the company's two-in-one Windows 8 interface — designed to work seamlessly across tablets and PCs — is not a rousing success just yet.

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Tweets sent from 'Twitter for Glass' appear, suggest official app in testing

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/30/twitter-for-glass-tweets/

Google has opened its Mirror API for devs while passing out Glass headsets to early adopters -- including our own Tim Stevens -- and now there's evidence Twitter is already working up an official app. As TechCrunch points out, developer Jonathan Gottfried noticed images popping up from a "Twitter for Glass" client sporting the same #throughglass hashtag he'd been using on his own TweetGlass project and that Google puts on G+ images shared from the device. The original tweet he pointed out has been deleted, but as he informed AllThingsD, there are several others still live. Most notably, they originate from Googlers working on the Glass project, and ATD astutely mentioned Twitter's rules prohibit third-party apps from using the company's name, suggesting this is something developed in-house.

Filed under: Wearables, Google

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Source: TechCrunch, AllThingsD, Jonathan Gottfried (Twitter)

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Synrgic Uno debuts as one of the last TI OMAP-powered Android phones (updated with video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/30/synrgic-uno-m1-singapore/

Taiwan might have an HTC One and an HTC First, but starting today, Singapore has a Synrgic Uno to join the banter (get it?). The name Synrgic might not immediately ring a bell, but if you dig a little deeper, you'll see a mention of its earlier phone plus three tablets from a while back. Alas, said phone was eventually canned as the quality didn't meet expectations, so consider this Uno a new attempt by the same Singaporean startup. Announced in its home city just now, this device is positioned as a mid-tier Android phone with some modest specs, namely a 4.7-inch, 720p IPS display with Gorilla Glass and, more interestingly, a dual-core 1.5GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 4470 SoC (with 1GB DDR2 RAM and SGX 544 graphics chip). With the upcoming TI OMAP 5 series shifting towards automotive systems, chances are the Uno will be one of the last OMAP-powered smartphones before TI waves goodbye to the mobile world. More after the break.

Update: We've added a hands-on video after the break. In short: smooth software and solid hardware build, with some room for improvement on the coating at the top and bottom sides.

Gallery: Synrgic Uno debuts as one of the last TI OMAP-powered Android phones

Gallery: Synrgic Uno hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: Synrgic

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Nokia to invest in 'array' mobile cameras that use small lenses to capture big images

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/30/nokia-to-invest-in-pelican-camera-tech/

If the name Pelican Imaging rings a bell, it's possibly because we covered the company's array imaging camera prototype back in 2011. The technology uses multiple lenses that are relatively tiny in terms of how much space they take up in a mobile device, but which work together to capture an image of the same quality as a much larger camera -- just as array telescopes replace the need for one huge telescope. Now, it appears we weren't the only ones taking an interest, because Nokia's investment wing has revealed to Bloomberg that it's been watching the startup since 2008 and is currently planning to invest in it. Bo Ilsoe, of Nokia Growth Partners, describes Pelican's technology as being "on the cusp of being commercialized" -- so who knows? One day, a future Lumia might house 41 megapixels, image stabilization and the voodoo known as plenoptics. In the meantime, there's a video after the break which sort of explains how the technology sucks in enough data to allow for focus to be adjusted after a picture is taken -- a trick which also sounds rather familiar.

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Mobile, Nokia

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Source: Bloomberg

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Eyes-on: MIT Media Lab's Smarter Objects can map a user interface onto... anything (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/29/eyes-on-mit-media-labs-smarter-objects/

While patrolling the halls of the CHI 2013 Human Factors in Computing conference in Paris, we spied a research project from MIT's Media Lab called "Smarter Objects" that turns Minority Report tech on its head. The researchers figured out a way to map software functionality onto tangible objects like a radio, light switch or door lock through an iPad interface and a simple processor / WiFi transceiver in the object. Researcher Valentin Huen explains that "graphical user interfaces are perfect for modifying systems," but operating them on a day-to-day basis is much easier using tangible objects.

To that end, the team developed an iPad app that uses motion tracking technology to "map" a user interface onto different parts of an object. The example we saw was a simple radio with a a pair of dials and a speaker, and when the iPad's camera was pointed at it, a circular interface along with a menu system popped up that cannily tracked the radio. From there, Huen mapped various songs onto different positions of the knob, allowing him to control his playlist by moving it -- a simple, manual interface for selecting music. He was even able to activate a second speaker by drawing a line to it, then "cutting" the line to shut it off. We're not sure when, or if, this kind of tech will ever make it into your house, but the demo we s! aw (see the pair of videos after the break) seemed impressively ready to go.

Filed under: Tablets, Science

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